Category: ESPN

ESPN’s surprise announcement this week that Jon Champion has decided to relocate to the United States and become ESPN’s lead commentator for MLS is going to leave a gaping hole in the commentaries of Premier League games. Out of all of the Premier League commentators calling games around the world, Champion is the number one in his field. Displaying a very English commentary style with an equal balance of witty remarks and not talking too much during games, Champion is the best in the business. So much so that his commentary style coupled with his knack of saying the right ... Read more

All good things must come to an end. Since 1994, ESPN has been broadcasting the FIFA World Cup into millions of homes across the United States but this year it’ll be no more. Way back in 2011, ESPN lost the rights to broadcast the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to rival network FOX Sports. So for World Cup 2018 and 2022, it’ll be FOX Sports televising the world’s greatest games instead of ESPN. To make matters worse for ESPN fans, FOX Sports also acquired the rights to World Cup 2026 so the soonest that ESPN could return to televising ... Read more

Despite ESPN losing the World Cup rights to FOX Sports, ESPN plans extensive English and Spanish-language news and information coverage of the 2018 World Cup in Russia across its media platforms in the United States during the month-long tournament, June 14 – July 15. ESPN’s English-language coverage will include a special one-hour SportsCenter – primarily on ESPN2 at 5 p.m. ET – on every match day of the tournament. The SportsCenter editions will focus primarily on World Cup news and analysis. ESPNFC.com correspondents will also provide on-site reports from Russia. ESPN FC, the global soccer program available exclusively in the ... Read more

ESPN has announced that it will broadcast a nightly one-hour World Cup news and discussion show on every match day of the tournament, which will give soccer fans the opportunity to listen to and watch expert analysis from the breadth of ESPN soccer talent. Primarily airing on ESPN2 at 5pm ET each night, anchors Max Bretos and Antonietta “Toni” Collins will host. Plus ESPN will be able to pull in expert opinions from their analysts and correspondents from around the world including Steve McManaman, Taylor Twellman, Craig Burley, Julie Foudy, Shaka Hislop, Kasey Keller, Paul Mariner, Kate Markgraf, Brian McBride, ... Read more

One of the highlights every four years for soccer fans in the United States is the release of ESPN’s posters for the World Cup. Although not available in stores, the US broadcaster hires a different designer each time to take a unique perspective of each country. Even though ESPN has lost the rights to the World Cup and it’s FOX’s turn to broadcast the World Cup to television sets across the United States this summer, ESPN has gone ahead and produced a series of posters designed by an artist named Paul Lacolley. Instead of creating one for each of the ... Read more

ESPN recently revealed what will be included as part of their April 12 launch of ESPN+ and there is cause to be concerned Among the highlights: the price of $49.99 per year, out-of-market MLS broadcasts, UEFA Nations League, the Championship, the EFL Cup and a World Cup show called The Last Train to Russia that will be exclusive to the OTT (over-the-top) service. As great as this product seems, it reminds me of another $50 service launched in 2017. Every Premier League match was available for free using your cable provider authentication in the NBC Sports App as of 2016. ... Read more

The 2018 League Cup final between Manchester City and Arsenal averaged 789,000 viewers across ESPN and ESPN Deportes, up 50 percent compared to the 526,000 viewers who watched the 2017 cup final on beIN SPORTS and beIN SPORTS En Espanol. In the 3-0 Manchester City FC victory over Arsenal FC at the historic Wembley Stadium on February 25, the match announcers for the ESPN broadcast were Mark Donaldson and Craig Burley. The English-language telecast delivered 672,000 average viewers on ESPN, nearly three times the audience for the final in 2017 (230,000 viewers). The game on ESPN Deportes delivered an average ... Read more

Self-dubbed as the “Netflix for sports,” ESPN+, a new streaming service from Disney is set to make its debut this spring. Beyond the recycling nomenclature once used by ESPN to brand syndicated college sports broadcasts on regional sports networks and local over-the-air channel, this concept is entirely new. The service will cost just $4.99 a month, but serves as a hybrid of sorts — giving access to ESPN and ESPN programming if you have a cable or satellite subscription to those channels, but also offering a slew of niche sports which are exclusively available via ESPN+ but don’t require a cable/satellite ... Read more